Thousands left behind as recovery gathers strength

More than 800,000 Australians have found themselves underemployed as the nation’s economic recovery gathers strength.

The Bureau of Statistics almost 900,000 Australians who want more work were not fully employed in September last year.

That included 811,600 people who were officially classed as underemployed.

The bureau’s study showed that both younger and older Australians have been hit hard by underemployment.

It said that while underemployment is more common among younger workers, older workers generally suffered longer bouts of underemployment.

The Bureau said part time workers, aged between 20 and 34, had the highest incidence of underemployment, with 29 per cent of those in this age group classed as underemployed.

The main reasons given, for this problem, were “no vacancies” in my line of work or “no vacancies at all.”

However older workers were suffering longer periods without enough work.

At the time of the survey, almost half of those aged 45-54, who wanted more work, had been underemployed for more than a year.

So had 45 per cent of those who were 55 or over.

The bureau said there were 452,100 female part time workers, among the underemployed, last September and 283,800 men.

However the incidence of underemployment among men in this group, at 30 per cent, was higher than that for women, at 20 per cent.